Rope Drop Every Day vs Afternoon Start

[taraaplin]

Let me begin by saying that we usually do rope drop every day of our trip. Obviously that means getting up at around 5-6 every morning. Do any of you do just afternoon park visits on any days of your trip. I am wondering if we should. We are going July 2-9th and know it will be swamped. If you do any late visits what time do you go akd which park? We will have no young kids this trip. Kids are 15,12, and 7

 

[mousehouse23]

I'd do early mornings the first 3 days, so you can get a lot in right away. I find we usually start experiencing burnout about 4 days in. Then you can schedule some later arrivals. On the last day, you might want to go back to Rope Dropping your favorite park.

Do you have Base tickets or Park Hoppers? For later arrivals, you're probably not going to want to park hop. I'd show up early afternoon, after lunch, in order to save money by eating off property. Have your 3 FP+s scheduled for the afternoon hours, when waits are longest. During the time between FP+s, hit some second-tier attractions/shows.

If your 7-year-old can handle it, I'd stay late a couple of times. Either catch the nighttime fireworks or take advantage of the lower wait times for the attractions then. I'd especially do this at MK, which is always great at night, and AK, so you can see Pandora.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We have done 3 days of RD and then either a resort day or a day when we go to a park in the late afternoon. Then 3 more RD days. This year we are going to Epcot at about 4 pm and having dinner and a few FP rides there. It helps us recover from the early mornings.

Edit: We've done that at MK too.

 

[cmsb]

We used to be a rope drop family, but as my kids have gotten older, that has changed. Now, we prefer to sleep in and stay at the parks until closing. A lot of our favorite dining experiences are breakfast meals, so I try to make reservations between 10:15 - 10:45 and schedule our fastpasses for after that. Or, we spend the morning at the pool and then hit the parks. We have never had a problem getting additional fastpasses in the day. The kids like the fireworks, so we usually see those every night.

We do get the park hopper and use it most days. We will hit one park in the afternoon and hop somewhere else in the evening depending on what we feel like doing. The only park that we don't stay late at is Animal Kingdom. We have been to the parks quite a few times, so we only do our favorite attractions, which makes this touring style easier. This has helped us to have a much more relaxed vacation and everyone is happy (most of the time).

 

[JenniferFolsomCa]

Do you think with Fastpass that the first hour is busier than it used to be? I often haven't quite closed down the park, but wondering when parks are open 8am to midnight, when I go 8am and leaving at 9pm is the same amount of rides as arriving at 1 and staying until midnight? Same number of hours, could get the same 3 FP, wondering how that works... Hmm...

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

we used to always get to the parks around 10 or so. this past trip, we rope dropped every park. i have decided to always do rope drop now. you get so much done!

 

[PPFlight75]

We RD most days but build in some rest days every few days. This helps us recharge and spend some time enjoying our resort. We may do an afternoon/evening park on our rest days or just stick to the resort.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

The first few days i do RD but my RDs have us arriving 15 minutes before park opening not 45-60 minutes like many on the boards recommend. Those first few days We’re running on adrenaline and don’t go so tired but we do midday breaks too. After that i mix it up with late starts and closing the parks or doing WS at Epcot starting at 11 am. It works for us.

 

[sjrec]

I think there’s still value getting to the park when they open-even during the summer you get so much done. But we like to leave in the afternoon. And we don’t do it every morning-but if you plan on coming later and staying later, with fp you will be fine. Unless your kids are up anyway, they might prefer coming later and closing things down.

 

[Delirium]

We do some afternoon arrivals, but that's usually after a super late night (MK closing midnight to 2 a.m) where we obviously want to sleep in. If you ever get the chance to do a 2 a.m. close at MK, do it. Midnight to 2 a.m. is hands down the best time to do MK. Beats RD many times over.

 

[loves to dive]

The only time we rope drop is when we are awake and up and moving around any way. I think we planned it once years ago with TSMM first opened and it was like the running of the bulls. We have done it a couple of times at AK because it was moving day of a split stay, we were up and had to move the car anyway so just drove to AK. We rarely close a park either. We really just go when we are up and moving and ready and stay for however long we want. We always have park hoppers and rarely go back to the park we started at in the morning.

 

[JETSDAD]

We RD most days but stopped doing EMH RD. We also aren't normally waiting around ahead of time for RD, just get there around RD time. We then take an afternoon break and then go close down whichever park we're in the mood for. This way we get the advantage of both the early morning and late evening crowds and avoid mid-day heat. Afternoon break is for some rest, pool, hanging out, and that allows us to recharge.

 

[disneyvoice]

Totally depends on what your expectations are. First, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by July. We have always been very surprised by how manageable the crowds are during that week. Our June and July trips were far less crowded than our October and January trips this past year. In fact when we were there the end of June/first week of July last summer we were able to do everything we wanted with a combination of FPs and waits that they all less than 20-30 minutes. We even managed to do FEA in the middle of the afternoon with about a 15-20 minute wait standby.

If you take a more relaxed approach and recognize that you won't be able to do as much as you would when you do rope drop, you will be fine. When my DH and I go without our son we often decide to sleep in and/or leave the parks in the late afternoon for dinner somewhere or to just relax at the resort. Those relaxed trips are honestly my favorites now.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

As a Canadian I’d be avoiding the parks during the high heat of a July afternoon in WDW!

I would 100% rope drop/afternoon break/close parks.

But full disclosure: thats our touring “plan” regardless of the time of year.

 

[Momto2minniemice]

I say do what is best for you and your family. If you all are not morning people WHY make everyone wake up and be grumpy to ride a few rides when they are night owls? Is it really worth it? My take is your on vacation, enjoy your time, it is your time. I have rope dropped, and the evening. Honestly the best time is when my kids are HAPPY, not tired. But that is just us =)

 

[Klayfish]

Let me begin by saying that we usually do rope drop every day of our trip. Obviously that means getting up at around 5-6 every morning. Do any of you do just afternoon park visits on any days of your trip. I am wondering if we should. We are going July 2-9th and know it will be swamped. If you do any late visits what time do you go akd which park? We will have no young kids this trip. Kids are 15,12, and 7

I know our opinion is different than most here, but we think that from a "ride productivity" standpoint doing rope drop is a waste of time and unnecessary. We never do it...except for the water parks, which don't open until 10am (and we show up at 9:55am). FP+ eliminates the need for getting up at 5 or 6am. This is especially true in the summer, when crowds have been pretty light. I think you'll be surprised about the crowd level during your trip. July 3rd and 4th in the evening in MK is nuts, otherwise it's not bad whatsoever. Our kids are 14, 10, 10. For our morning park visits, we don't show up until 9:30-10:00am. For our afternoon/evening park days, we don't show up until anywhere between 1pm and 4pm, depending on different factors. I'd bet we get just as much done as a rope drop person. If you're awake anyway, sure, go for it. The first hour the park is open isn't very crowded. But if you want to sleep in, do it. Use FP+ and you'll get just as much done as the person who was up at 5am.

 

[pigletgirl]

Unless you absolutely cannot get yourselves out of bed in the morning for RD, I HIGHLY recommend RD. There is so much that can be done first thing and you can repeat your favorites with FPs later in the day (if you intend on coming back to the same park OR park hopping.) I find that a midday break is essential. WDW takes a ton of stamina. My husband calls it a death march.

 

[ChristineOH]

When we RD, we are not getting up at 5:00 or 6:00 am... we might arrive at the bus stop at 8:00 for a 9:00 MK RD. We also arrive mid-morning some days and just tour using FP+.

We usually do morning/break/evening and usually return to the park around 5:00, give or take an hour. We do sometimes have a resort day and only go to the park in the evening. In your case, I would not plan to show up to the park in the early afternoon with the July heat. I'd plan to arrive around 6:00 pm, hopefully after the late afternoon shower, and close down the park.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We get up around 7 am for RD. I get up at 5 am for work so 7 am is sleeping in for me. I’m usually up on my own around that time anyway. No alarm clock needed. But we don’t arrive 45-60 minutes before RD. We try to be at the bus stop or monorail at 8 am for 9 am opening. We arrive maybe 15 minutes before park opening and we are good with that.

 

[dreamit]

In the summer I especially like to rope drop because it helps in getting a lot done before the worst of the heat and crowds. We do typically build in afternoon breaks. Mid-way through the trip, we will have a day with a morning off and the last day or two sets mornings off and we close the park.